Matilda the Musical

Matilda the Musical is marvellous…a magical, mad and unexpectedly moving experience that tugs at the funny bones and heartstrings of adults and children alike.

Matilda is an entrancing story of childhood resilience and rebellion and is currently in Adelaide in the final stages of its Australian tour.

Although quite a lot of licence has been taken with Roald Dahl’s original storyline, the narrative focuses on little Matilda Wormwood, a child prodigy with enormous emotional intelligence. She’s blessed by not only genius, a love of sophisticated books and capacity to imagine her own wonderful stories, but also a talent for doing magical things.

Unfortunately, Matilda’s parents are greedy and self-obsessed and her brother Michael is slovenly and lazy. The parents are verbally abusive towards Matilda and show no love for her. Rather, they send Matilda to a draconian school run by former hammer throwing champion and now evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, who detests children and describes them as ‘maggots’. Miss Trunchbull’s most dreaded punishment is confinement in a lockup she calls Chokey.

Until Matilda leads them in a noisy and exciting rebellion, only the sweet, gentle teacher Miss Honey stands between the children and the headmistress’s tyranny. And only Miss Honey can see Matilda’s true potential.

Pint-sized child actors create the heart and soul of this musical with stunning, slick performances that amaze the audience and more than match the talents of the show’s seasoned adult performers.

The role of Matilda is shared by several youngsters, each creating her own interpretation of the character at different performances. On Adelaide’s opening night Matilda was performed by Izellah Connelly, who astounded the audience with her stage presence and talent. Acting, singing and dancing with control and aplomb, Izellah perfectly achieved a fine balance between Matilda’s sweetness and steely inner core, her internal vulnerability and stoic public face, as well as her sometimes naughty, yet magical quality. Bravo.

A standout among the remaining excellent child cast is Dominic Ambrose as fat boy Bruce Bogtrotter. Dominic’s energetic and hilarious performance ensures the cake-eating scene is one of the sequences audiences will never forget.

While the children of the story are portrayed quite realistically, many of the adults typify Roald Dahl’s capacity to create nonsensical, cartoonish characters. Contrasting with the realism of Matilda, the loud and larger-than-life characters seem to mirror how some younger children perceive many real adults, ie that of domineering figures, misunderstanding of a child’s innate intelligence and view of the world.

Caricature is particularly true of Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Matilda’s abusive parents, played in hilariously over-the-top fashion by Daniel Frederiksen and Marika Aubrey.  Both actors give wonderful performances and clearly relish their roles.

In a wonderfully physical and mesmerising performance, James Millar is big, nasty, intimidating and wildly funny as another pantomime-style character, evil headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

Counter-balancing the personas of the parents and headmistress, Miss Honey is the embodiment of goodness and as sweet as her name suggests. Lucy Maunder brings a beautiful singing voice and fine acting to the role.

Leah Lim excels in the role of Matilda’s warm adult friend and ready listener at the library, Mrs Phelps.

Travis Khan is very funny as Mrs Wormwood’s dance teacher Rudolpho, while Stephen Anderson, Reece Budin, Daniel Raso, James Bryars and Rachel Cole are fantastic in their various roles. The adult ensemble and swing performers are also terrific.

Diction in spoken dialogue, particularly for the child performers, is excellent, though song lyrics for all performers are at times not so clear.

The set provides a gorgeously cartoonish atmosphere with its colourful blocks of alphabet letters. Costuming is superb, with each costume completely complementing its character. Lighting is excellent, as is sound design and music.

Tim Minchin’s lyrics are often nonsensical, just as Roald Dahl would love, but in perfect synchronisation with all other magnificent elements of design and performance, Minchin creates contrasting moments of gentleness, cruelty, fun and energy, sadness and grief.  

Numbers that stand out include ‘When I Grow Up’,  ‘Miracle’, ‘This Little Girl’, ‘Telly’, ‘School Song’, ‘My House’ and ‘Revolting Children’.

Matilda the Musical is like a yummy bag of sugar coated sour confectionery. Every morsel is surprising, bittersweet but ultimately delicious and satisfying.

Be warned, Miss Trunchbull may consign you to Chokey forever if you miss this extraordinary and memorable production.

Lesley Reed

Images: Izellah Connelly; James Millar as Miss Trunchbull (photographer: James Morgan) and Lucy Maunder as Miss Honey.